League Preview: Athlone Town -v- Drogheda United

ATHLONE TOWN

Athlone Town play host Drogheda at the Athlone Town Stadium on Friday hoping earn a fourth home league win of the season. Although the Westmeath men are marooned towards the foot of the First Division table, they have earned two of their three 2016 home league victories since the mid-season break.

Manager Colin Fortune will be hoping that Athlone can continue their push to stay ahead of Cabinteely. The South County Dublin side sit just a point behind Athlone and the goal differences are similar (-29 for Athlone, -31 for Cabinteely).

Conor Barry was forced off through injury during last week’s Tolka Park encounter with Shelbourne. Tellingly, his withdrawal came when the sides were level at 0-0. The Dublin side went on to win 3-0.  Unfortunately, Barry’s injury is a lower leg fracture and Athlone will miss him for the remainder of the season. Barry, who joined Town in February from Galway United, scored two in Athlone’s recent big win over Cabinteely, bringing his tally to six for the season.

Of those six goals, two came against Drogheda, including one in a super display off the bench at United Park in March, which also saw him grab the assist for Athlone's last minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw. 

The home faithful at Lissywollen have had just fifteen league goals to celebrate this term.  Of some comfort may be that this week’s opponents have manged just sixteen themselves on the road.

Joe Maloney will probably return for Athlone after serving his suspension.

DROGHEDA UNITED

Drogheda manager Pete Mahon will be hoping that his side’s grip on second place will be strengthened tomorrow away to second from bottom Athlone Town.

Drogheda made it five wins from seven a week ago when they overcame fellow promotion hopefuls Cobh Ramblers 2-0 at United Park. Two goals from striker Gareth McCaffrey (who joined from Shamrock Rovers mid-season) against Ramblers preserved Drogheda’s two point lead over UCD in third and perhaps crucially opened up an eight point gap between United and Cobh in fourth place.

Drogheda manager Pete Mahon was delighted with how his side coped with the challenge posed by one of their key rivals. “I thought we were excellent against Cobh,’ Mahon explained to droghedaunited.ie. “We may not have created as many opportunities as some of our recent games but I thought we were always in full control against a very decent side.”

Pete was happy that his side resisted a late Cobh fight back. “We had to see out a few nervy minutes towards the end of the game but it was important for us to keep a clean sheet which has been rare this season.” It was actually Drogs’ seventh home league in which they hadn’t conceded and Mahon is looking forward optimistically.  “We are well into the business end of the season and we need to keep winning games.”

A goal in each half from the on-loan McCaffrey clinched an eighth league victory of 2016 at United Park and Mahon was full of praise for the striker as well as the other recent additions to his squad.

“He (McCaffrey) played very well the other night and obviously his two goals were the difference but it was a real team performance. There wasn’t a single player who didn’t play well and that was very rewarding. We made a few additions during the summer break with Kevin Farragher, John McKeown, Richie Purdy and Gareth and they’ve given us a fresh impetus. All four have played their part and hopefully Gareth can get another double tomorrow night!”

Matters have been pretty close between Athlone and Drogheda this term. The Boynesiders have taken seven points from the three earlier encounters but their two wins have been by just the odd goal. Mahon will be taking nothing for granted tomorrow night. “We will be confident of getting a result but certainly not cocky. Athlone held us to a draw early on in the season and they’ve given us a difficult game anytime we’ve played them. The incentive is there for us to get the right result as we want to keep our good run going and end the season strongly.”

Drogs came away from Athlone with a 2-1 victory in May, courtesy of a Sean Thornton header midway through the second-half. Drogheda captain Thornton is likely to return to tomorrow night’s starting line-up.

Referee: Eoghan O’Shea.

MATCH FACTS

The teams have met on 22 occasions in the League and Cup since 1995 with Athlone Town winning six, Drogheda United winning nine with the remaining seven ending in draws. Of the draws only one has ended scoreless and that came back on 6th April 2001.

Games between the sides produce goals as well with the 22 games played showing 63 goals scored at an average of 2.8 per game.

Athlone: last five league games LLLWL

Drogheda: last five league games WWDDW

BETTING

Athlone Town 8/1; Draw 4/1; Drogheda United 1/4.

PREDICTION

Athlone Town 0-2 Drogheda United.  

Athlone Town

Injured: Conor Barry, Ronan Hanaphy, Tom O’Halloran and Craig Shortt.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Drogheda United

Injured: None.

Doubtful: Colm Deasy and Sean Brennan

Suspended: None.